Gospel Voices in and for the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod

Becker

By Matthew Becker The Creator’s Tapestry: Scriptural Perspectives on Man-Woman Relationships in Marriage and the Church arrived in today’s mail. This CTCR Report, adopted in Dec 2009, attempts to fulfill the 1995 LCMS Synod Resolution 3-10 that called upon the Commission “to prepare a comprehensive study of the scriptural relationship of man and woman.” One…Read more →

By Matthew Becker On January 24, 2006 the LCMS Commission on Doctrinal Review revoked the doctrinal certification of Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions “because of numerous passages and features of the volume which are ‘inadequate, misleading, ambiguous, or lacking in doctrinal clarity.’” You can download the full report here. I agree with the CDR’s conclusion that…Read more →

By Matthew Becker Concordia: A Reader’s Edition of the Book of Concord, ed. Paul McCain et al. (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2005). The editors of Concordia state in an appendix that their “text for the Book of Concord is not a new translation from the original German and Latin texts” (p. 680). Rather, Concordia…Read more →

By Matthew Becker My friend, Dr. Edward Schroeder, often asks the question, “How does one commend good works without losing the gospel promise?” I think that is a good question. Nonetheless, as many others point out, we Lutheran Christians have not done a very good job of rightly and effectively joining the two aspects of…Read more →

By Matthew Becker Last October an article appeared in the Lutheran Witness that claimed “Luther’s home city (Wittenberg) includes no Lutheran congregation.” The article quotes Matthew Harrison, executive director of LCMS World Relief and Human Care: “There are people with deep Lutheran sentiments in Wittenberg, but there is no congregation organized and operating under the…Read more →

By Matthew Becker[1] I. The Foundation for Freedom and Discipline in the Christian Church Thesis 1: No one in heaven or on earth, except God alone, has the right and authority to rule over the faith and conscience of a Christian. (Exodus 20:3; James 4:12; Matthew 28:18)[2] Thesis 2: The entire Christian church does not…Read more →

By Matthew Becker Law, Life, and the Living God: The Third Use of the Law in Modern American Lutheranism. By Scott R. Murray. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2002. 250 pages. This book began as a dissertation at New Orleans Baptist Seminary. The author, Scott R. Murray, is a 1983 graduate of Concordia Theological Seminary,…Read more →

By Matthew Becker Daystar began in 1999 as a small online network of individuals in the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) who were concerned about theological issues and problems in and beyond their church body. Organized by Professor Robert Schmidt and Professor Matthew Becker, along with the help of two other LCMS members, the network grew to include…Read more →

By Matthew Becker INTRODUCTION[1] Christians are taught to be mindful of the future, “to watch the signs of the times,” so that they will not be caught unprepared when the Son of Man and his Kingdom fully arrive (see Luke 21:25-28). Yet, Christians also know from experience that the signs…Read more →